Fabulous Frances Farquharson (eBook)

Introduction

On the outskirts of Aberdeen, in a purpose-built modern construction, is the archive of the Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum, a temperature-controlled storage space with rows that unfold like butterflies to reveal countless treasures. Within this vast collection is the extensive, perfectly preserved wardrobe of Frances Farquharson.

As the beautiful American-born editor of the British edition of Harper’s Bazaar in the thirties and forties, you’d expect that Mrs Farquharson would possess the fabulous wardrobe to match. There are hundreds of items in the archive, from delicate silk dresses and blouses by Schiaparelli and Mainbocher to sturdy but smooth-to-the-touch tweeds from local weavers, polished leather shoes and gleaming brooches, and the bright powder-puff tam-o’-shanters that were her signature in the Highlands of Scotland. Indeed, this collection not only reveals the rich and varied life of a fashion dynamo but also provides an insight into what made her so attractive to all who knew her.

She was the vivacious American who charmed aristocracy when she arrived in Europe from Seattle in the roaring twenties. Glowing with enthusiasm, she was an energetic counterpoint to Old-World tradition, and whenever she arrived in a room, all eyes were drawn to her. As a fashion journalist in the thirties, she lived a whirl of exclusive parties, fashion shows and debutante balls, where she introduced Elsa Schiaparelli’s daughter at the 1938 season. Her patrician image regularly featured in the society columns, a regal sculpted eyebrow, sharp cheekbones and a halo of fur accentuating her dark-haired beauty.

Alongside the black wool dress by Edward Molyneaux and the cream blouse by Elsa Schiaparelli, both of whom were personal friends, there are vintage pieces from Marks & Spencer, including a black pleated day dress from the 1940s, which wouldn’t look out of place in department stores today.

She wasn’t particular about labels – if an item was well made and flattering, she would embrace it. Evening mules decorated with hearts were worn to a New York Valentine’s Day ball; there’s a summer dress bought on a trip to Palm Beach in 1930; yellow espadrilles from Majorca; a tartan two-piece swimsuit to champion Scotland when on beach holidays in the 1950s; a printed Hermès silk turban from the 1940s; pairs of glitzy peep-toed Delman shoes; and a selection of mohair skirts and tops from Scottish manufacturers in an array of brilliant hues.

Also included in the collection is a pair of brown shoes which were part of the government’s utility scheme, introduced in 1942. Following the outbreak of war in 1939, Frances earned plaudits for her wartime leadership of British Harper’s Bazaar, under her business name, The Hon. Mrs James Rodney, from her late first husband. Not only did she print morale-boosting messages and practical advice to the women of Britain, who were suffering under bombing raids and rationing, but she delivered an ambitious campaign in the United States to encourage American department stores to buy British. As the only woman in the boardroom, she actively persuaded the Ministry of Trade and reluctant textile manufacturers, who were sceptical of her feminine energy, that British exports could deliver much-needed dollars to help win the war.

A red leather Elsa Schiaparelli travel bag still has a brown cardboard transport tag attached to it, handwritten with the words ‘Invercauld’. The bag may have been from the 1930s, but Frances was carrying it with her more than a decade later, when she first visited Royal Deeside with her third husband, Captain Alwyne Farquharson, the 16th Laird of Invercauld. After the war, she spent the second half of her life in Invercauld, in the heart of the Cairngorms on Royal Deeside.

The item in the collection that sums up Frances the most is the dramatic Farquharson tartan wool cloak, worn with a matching jacket, skirt and cap, which was custom-made for her by Aberdeen tailors Christie & Gregor. It was once she married Alwyne, Chief of Clan Farquharson, in 1949, that she fully embraced Scottish traditions to affirm her new position as lady of one of the largest estates in Scotland and owner of two castles – Invercauld and Braemar, and Torloisk House on the Isle of Mull. She wholeheartedly embraced the Highlands, where she was tireless in promoting the culture – its history, music, cottage-industry arts and its textiles.

With her flamboyant glamour and the tartan capes punctuating every sweeping gesture, she became one of the most recognisable figures in the village of Braemar, and her indomitable and persuasive persona helped to bring much-needed business to the area. For almost fifty years she appeared side-by-side with the royal family in their pavilion at the annual Braemar Gathering, where she ensured she was always cheerleading Scotland, and its textiles, in her eye-catching tartan outfits.

If you wish to follow in her footsteps, Braemar is an hour’s drive from Aberdeen. The further west you travel, the road becomes windier and the gentle green farmland turns craggy and rough, with endless hills covered in smatterings of gorse and heather. The grouse moors resemble a piece of tweed fabric, in their rusty browns, oranges and greens, like the leaves that blaze in autumn. Eventually, you come to the immense Invercauld Estate, which edges onto the deep forests of Deeside. Invercauld is only a short drive to Balmoral Castle, reached along a narrow road which clings to the River Dee and is flanked by deep forests of soaring pine trees.

In the village, there are faint whispers in the air, and in the babble of the Cluny Waters that cuts through it, of a remarkable woman and her unique spirit. Her influence is evident in the yellow and pink interiors of the turreted fairy-tale castle, Braemar. In the disused local church, where she ran a theatre, she designed pink murals which told the story of the Farquharson family, but these have long been hidden away when the building was converted to flats. The fashion boutique, men’s sporting clothes shop and the antique shop she founded in the village closed soon after her death, and the colourful embellishments to the grey granite of Invercauld, such as the yellow window frames and pink game larder, have been painted over.

Still, you can imagine her draped in the green and blue Farquharson tartan, resplendent against the grey stone of Invercauld Castle, and with the outdoor larder like a rose petal against a layer of fresh snow. As her daughter Marybelle Drummond said, ‘Like most Americans, she didn’t do things by halves. She didn’t paint, but she was an artist, expressing herself through clothes and colour.’

I first came across one of her elaborate tartan costumes in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, which also holds an extensive collection of pieces from her wardrobe, while researching a book on tartan, and the story of a true fashion original living in Scotland captivated me. I made enquiries at the offices of Invercauld as to whether I could be put in touch with her family, so that I could delve a little deeper into her life. Her much younger husband, Captain Alwyne Farquharson, who had celebrated his centenary year in 2019, had been namechecked in an episode of Netflix’s The Crown in Season One, for leasing some of his moors to the queen. A couple of weeks later, I received a phone call from Marybelle and a handwritten letter from Captain Alwyne, from the Farquharson seat in Norfolk, where the captain now lived with his second wife:

I should begin by telling you I am now aged 101 years old, exceptionally deaf, and don’t see as well as I once did, but I will try to help you as best I can. My darling wife Francie was indeed remarkable in many ways, and enjoyed helping people develop their talents.

Over the course of several more phone calls with Marybelle, we chatted about Frances’ life and how best to tell her story in a biography. As I learnt more about her, the more intriguing she became. She possessed a completely unique and intuitive sense of style, a natural warmth and charm that drew people to her, and a contagious joie de vivre. She was larger than life; a force of nature who threw herself into every new adventure with gusto and held a lifelong passion for helping others achieve their best. All those who received a letter from her could attest to her distinctive and effervescent looped handwriting in black marker. As a journalist, she had an impeccable memory, never taking notes and never forgetting the details about the people she interviewed.

She came of age at the dawn of a new era for women’s liberation, yet it was still incredibly unusual for an American woman to live her life so independently. She chose to travel the world, rather than settle down to raise a family in her hometown. She crossed the Atlantic with her eyes wide open, relishing each new experience, and in turn, Old Europe was receptive to charming American girls like her, who were beyond the restrictions of the established class system.

The upper echelons tended to be off limits to those who hadn’t been born into it, but Frances was welcomed into the most exclusive spaces, from London’s Marlborough House to a Romanian royal palace in the Carpathian Mountains. She used her own talents and magnetism to forge a path into the top rungs of society, where she met some of the most interesting figures of the day and was witness to some of the major events of the twentieth century.

Her life may have resembled that of an American character in a Henry James novel, who is both intrigued by and intriguing to...